Almost
every morning 61-year-old Miriam Escobar leaves her
Pembroke Pines home before dawn, heading down I-75
to the Miller School campus. Not only is she putting
in extra hours as a program administrator in
the Department
of Pediatrics but she’s also devoting extra time
to do something equally important: starting her day with
a workout at the Miller School’s new Medical
Wellness Center.

“I have exercised on and off for years, but in
the past year I got out of the habit and gained 20 pounds,” says
Escobar. “I am determined to take the weight
off, but more importantly I want to be healthier overall,
especially as I get older. I want to be able to move
around better,
keep my blood pressure down, and just have a sense
of
wellness about myself.”

Escobar follows a set routine of
cardiovascular work on the treadmill and a weight-training
program designed
especially
for her by a Wellness Center coach after a thorough
evaluation. “The
facility is so welcoming, the coaches are great, and
they are here to help you meet your goals, whatever
they might
be.”

The Medical Wellness Center officially
opened for business at the beginning of October—not
a moment too soon when you consider the state of our
waistlines. According
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
65 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese,
and despite
the well-established health benefits of regular exercise,
two out of three Americans live a sedentary lifestyle.

“It’s not easy to make a commitment to
physical activity,” says
Richard Iacino, assistant vice president for health
program development and founder of the Medical Wellness
Center. “If
it were, everyone would do it, and we would not have
the health crisis we have in this country. We have
to ask ourselves:
What is standing in our way of making the change?

“Our goal is to engage the
workforce in wellness. We want to offer an open, fun,
non-hurtful, and non-stressful
environment for people to begin making physical activity a permanent
part of their lives.”

There are major barriers to getting
people to exercise—and
the Medical Wellness Center is working to address all
of them. Just ask 44-year-old Thomas Harris, Ph.D.,
an assistant
professor of biochemistry and molecular biology who
puts in a long day in the lab studying the mechanism
and structure
of a particular protein linked to cancer. When his
lab work is done, his gym work begins.

“I exercised my whole life, but stopped about four years
ago when I moved to a new apartment that did not have
workout facilities, and it became very inconvenient to exercise,” Harris
says. “It was like a sentence of some sort—I
kept saying, ‘I need to get back to exercise,’ but
I never did until now, because it’s easy access
having it right here where I work.

“The difference in how I feel is incredible—I
am sleeping better, my stress level is way down, and
I don’t
feel guilty eating. This is an invaluable resource
open to us. I would tell anyone, ‘Come look around,
once you see the facility you’ll be sold.’ It
is as terrific as any facility I’ve seen anywhere
in the world.”

The Miller School is addressing
economic barriers to exercise by keeping Medical Wellness
Center membership
fees below
those charged at other centers—with even further
savings through the UM Benefits Office for employees
who commit to regular exercise.

There are also plans in the works to help employees
find the time, between busy work schedules and family
obligations,
to exercise.

The Department of Pediatrics is
launching a pilot program to promote wellness among
its staff. “We understand
it may be difficult for employees to use the center before
or after normal business hours, so we are trying to offer
schedule flexibility as a way of promoting wellness,” says
Dennis Harris, assistant chair for administration in pediatrics. “Think
about it: If you promote wellness, you will have a
healthier workforce. It just seems like a great thing
to do.”

Harris says the department is trying
things like allowing its hourly employees to combine
breaks and their lunchtime
into one chunk of time to be used at the Medical Wellness
Center. They can also schedule their time during a
larger segment of the day, not just limited to the
traditional
noon lunch hour. “Hopefully if this program works
well in pediatrics, it is something that could be tried
in other departments,” says Harris. “It
is really a win-win situation, because if employees
are
healthier, they are going to be happier, and happy
employees are the
best kind of employees.”

Every detail of the facility was
designed with employees’ convenience
in mind—from the number of lockers (more than
500 in each locker room), to the length of lockers
to accommodate
longer clothing, to rows of showers to ensure that
members can get in, work out, and shower within about
an hour.
Extra special attention also has been given to the
employees who are exercising for the first time.

“The place is about you, the workforce—it
was built for you, and we’ve trained people to
be your support. If you haven’t already, come take
a look at it, and let us help you develop a self-concept
of being a healthy,
exercising person,” Iacino says.